Years in the Waiting

12.48pm Sydney time, 10.48am Perth time and 3.48am London time on Monday 3rd August 2015. It has been four years since having first met some of the leaders of YWAM Perth, Australia and having connected with them, hearing the Megacites vision for London 2012, you couldn’t help but be captivated, hooked and encouraged with the global vision for reaching cities with Christ’s love. And London 2012 was the focus for Megacities.

I can’t believe we are finally on our way to hang out on the YWAM base. The quality of discipleship, purposeful sense of family and marked maturity of serving attitudes stood out so significantly to our family that we said we would visit Perth one day. And this day has arrived.

The Megacities teams sent to serve churches carry an international flavour. They receive biblical foundational teaching on the training base for character development, understanding of God as Father, the vital necessity of Holy Spirit inspired prayer and service amongst a host of other subjects taught on the DTS. (Discipleship Training School.) The teams are then carefully selected and team leaders intentionally released into developmental opportunities.

It is 6.05am Perth time, Thursday 6th August 2015 and our plane has taken off set for our long journey home back to London. I am grateful for the journey ahead as I am keen to process the whirlwind of the last few days at the YWAM base. It has been an incredible experience with time to explore some of the city and outer regions as well as most importantly, relational connections. We have talked over dinner, laughed over a BBQ, told each other stories of God’s faithfulness and goodness and been inspired by the creative facility which sends thousands of young people across the globe.

We wanted to say thank you to those at YWAM Perth, encourage the Megacities vision which we benefitted from so significantly in West London and be open to more that God might want to breath into.

We weren’t quite expecting what we saw visually. People drew us to Perth, not property but the scale of operation became clearer as we were given our welcome tour. The kitchens are one of the largest in Perth as over 400 people being fed three meals a day. The open space and myriad of glass walls gives an obvious sense of an intentionally transparent culture. The sizeable canvases and art galleries on most walls brightens, cheers and inspires your mind and soul. The pleasing collection of three thousand lightbulbs hanging collectively over the coffee bar tell a humorous story of its’ creation – picked up from IKEAs recycling bins – with the creator caught on camera utilising someone else’s rubbish. The mix of new and old perfectly blended which spoke of generations working together – young and mature. The family atmosphere created at meal times an obvious display of values threaded throughout the organisation and as we experienced, also out on the field. The attention to detail, the creativity and love for Jesus are so apparent.